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Sports Reporter
THE Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association have rallied behind the Government for taking a hard-line stance on the ZIFA board and called for drastic action to wrestle the game back from Cuthbert Dube whom they accuse of turning a national sporting discipline into his personal property.

Sport, Arts and Culture Deputy Minister, Thabita Kanengoni-Malinga, ratcheted pressure on Dube in parliament on Wednesday when she said that he was “doing nothing for Zimbabwe,” and the game would be better off without him and the board that he leads.

Yesterday, Kanengoni-Malinga reiterated her tough stance by telling journalists in the capital that there was no going back, on Government’s drive to change the people running domestic football, and it was now just a question of when, rather than if, this would happen.

Eddie “Mboma” Nyatanga, the ZNSSA president, said Dube was starting to behave as if he had bought domestic football, through the money he claims he injected into the game, and it was now part of his array of pets at his home.

“The majority of football fans have for a long time been waiting for the Government to act on these monsters who have, using their financial resources, reduced the nation’s number one sporting discipline into their personal project,” Nyatanga said.

“Dube has failed in five years to improve our football because he doesn’t care about this game, he is only concerned about the prestige of being called ZIFA president and the committees that he brags about which he is put into by Fifa or whoever.

“To him it’s not about what happens to our game but what happens to his profile and he believes that it’s an achievement for our nation that he is made to organise the Confederation Cup while the Warriors, who are supposed to be his number one priority, can’t even defend the Cosafa Cup.

“He talks about putting his money into the game, fair enough, but we didn’t say that we were looking for a sponsor because if that was the case then we would have all gone to Econet to provide us with someone who can lead our football on their behalf while they would be putting money.

“We want a ZIFA president who provides leadership, not financial handouts, we want someone who has a vision, who likes football and not someone who just stays at his home and doesn’t even care to be there with our boys when they are in their battles.

“If football leaders don’t have to be there, in the stadiums, why is it that we have Issa Hayatou in Equatorial Guinea during this Afcon tournament, why is it that we see Sepp Blatter, throughout the World Cup month, going from one stadium to the other in that country that would be hosting the tournament?

“The South African Sports Minister was in Equatorial Guinea because Bafana Bafana are there, the SAFA president was there and we see all the other FA presidents, of the teams that are taking part in that tournament, in the stadiums because that is the way football is run.”

Nyatanga said the Government needed to be supported for cracking the whip on ZIFA and called for urgent action to ensure that Dube was replaced as the leader of ZIFA.

“We are fully behind the Government and we say that their action is something that has been long overdue because our football has been dying a slow and painful day in the past five years and Dube comes out as someone who doesn’t care at all,” said Nyatanga.

“He portrayed himself as someone who was untouchable simply because he controls that useless ZIFA Council but football belongs to the people of this country and not just a few people who vote for him and whose integrity is questionable and who can trade a vote simply because they have been given an air ticket to go and be the head of delegation for one of our teams in some country in Africa.

“If you read all that he promised us, before he came into power, you will see that he has not achieved even one thing and still he can’t stomach criticism simply because he thinks that his money is what matters.

“We are challenging the ZIFA board members, those good men and women who have suffered in the year because Dube and Jonathan (Mashingaidze) have turned this association into their personal property to come forward and join this battle to help our game.

“We know that they love our game and we have some good men and women on that board who have been silenced and they should just quit and that will really expose Dube and his right hand man because they are the only ones, on that board, who have been there for five years and they should be the ones that should be kicked out.”